RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman Statement On The Democrat Attacks Of Karl Rove

Republican National Committee ^ | June 23, 2005 | RNC

[seamus]

 "It’s outrageous that the same Democrats who stood by Dick Durbin’s libeling of our military are now expressing faux outrage over Karl Rove’s statement of historical fact.  George Soros, Michael Moore, MoveOn and the hard left were wrong after 9/11, just as it was wrong for Democrat leaders to stand by and remain silent after Dick Durbin made his deplorable comments.”

- RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman

Liberal Third Party Groups Urged Restraint, Blamed America:

 

Immediately After 9/11, MoveOn.Org Petition Urged “Moderation And Restraint” And Use Of “International Judicial Institutions.”

  • “We, The Undersigned, Citizens And Residents Of The United States Of America … Appeal To The President Of The United States, George W. Bush … And To All Leaders Internationally To Use Moderation And Restraint In Responding To The Recent Terrorist Attacks Against The United States.” (MoveOn.Org Website, “MoveOn Peace,” http://web.archive.org/web/20021127190638/peace.moveon.org/petition.php3, Posted 9/13/01, Accessed 6/23/05)

 

• “We Implore The Powers That Be To Use, Wherever Possible, International Judicial Institutions And International Human Rights Law To Bring To Justice Those Responsible For The Attacks, Rather Than The Instruments Of War, Violence Or Destruction.” (MoveOn.Org Website, “MoveOn Peace,” http://web.archive.org/web/20021127190638/peace.moveon.org/petition.php3, Posted 9/13/01, Accessed 6/23/05)

 

• “[W]e Demand That There Be No Recourse To Nuclear, Chemical Or Biological Weapons, Or Any Weapons Of Indiscriminate Destruction, And Feel That It Is Our Inalienable Human Right To Live In A World Free Of Such Arms.” (MoveOn.Org Website, “MoveOn Peace,” http://web.archive.org/web/20021127190638/peace.moveon.org/petition.php3, Posted 9/13/01, Accessed 6/23/05)

 

Just After 9/11, Liberal Filmmaker Michael Moore Derided “Terror And Bloodshed” Committed By Americans.  (David Brooks, Op-Ed, “All Hail Moore,” The New York Times, 6/26/04)

  • Just After 9/11, Moore Blamed America’s “Taxpayer-Funded Terrorism” And Bush Administration For Terrorist Attacks. “We abhor terrorism – unless we’re the ones doing the terrorizing. We paid and trained and armed a group of terrorists in Nicaragua in the 1980s who killed over 30,000 civilians. That was OUR work. You and me.…Let’s mourn, let’s grieve, and when it’s appropriate let’s examine our contribution to the unsafe world we live in.” (Michael Moore Website Archive, “Death, Downtown,” Posted 9/12/01, www.michaelmoore.com, Accessed 7/27/04)

 

• Michael Moore Said U.S. Should Not Have Removed Taliban After 9/11.  Moore:  “Likewise, to bomb Afghanistan – I mean, I’ve never understood this, Tim.” (CNBC’s “Tim Russert,” 10/19/02)

 

Liberal Donor George Soros Claimed America Should Have Treated 9/11 Attacks As Crime, Responded With Police Work.  “War is a false and misleading metaphor in the context of combating terrorism.  Treating the attacks of September 11 as crimes against humanity would have been more appropriate.  Crimes require police work, not military action.  To protect against terrorism, you need precautionary measures, awareness, and intelligence gathering – all of which ultimately depend on the support of the populations among which terrorists operate.  Imagine for a moment that September 11 had been treated as a crime.  We would have pursued Bin Laden in Afghanistan, but we would not have invaded Iraq.  Nor would we have our military struggling to perform police work in full combat gear and getting killed in the process.”  (George Soros, The Bubble Of American Supremacy, 2004, p. 18) 

 

• Soros Said The Execution Of 9/11 Attacks “Could Not Have Been More Spectacular.”  “Admittedly, the terrorist attack was a historic event in its own right.  Hijacking fully loaded airplanes and using them as suicide bombs was an audacious idea, and the execution could not have been more spectacular.”  (George Soros, The Bubble Of American Supremacy, 2004, p. 2)

 

• Soros Said War On Terror Had Claimed More Innocent Victims Than 9/11 Attack Itself. “This is a very tough thing to say, but the fact is, that the war on terror as conducted by this administration, has claimed more innocent victims that the original attack itself.” (George Soros, Remarks At Take Back America Conference, Washington, DC, 6/3/04)

 

Liberal Democrats Urged Restraint, Blamed America:

 

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH):  “‘The Time For Peace Is Now,’ [Kucinich] Declared Optimistically July 11, Two Months To The Day Before Terrorists Hit The Pentagon And The World Trade Center.  … Sitting In His Capitol Hill Office Last Week, Near A Window Where He Could See The Smoke Rising From The Pentagon On Sept. 11, Kucinich Insisted He Is More Optimistic Than Ever That People Worldwide Are Ready To Embrace The Cause Of Nonviolence.” (Elizabeth Auster, “Offer The Hand Of Peace,” [Cleveland, OH] Plain Dealer, 9/30/01)

  • Kucinich: “Afghanistan May Be An Incubator Of Terrorism But It Doesn’t Follow That We Bomb Afghanistan …” (Elizabeth Auster, “Offer The Hand Of Peace,” [Cleveland, OH] Plain Dealer, 9/30/01)

 

Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI): “Only Now Are We Trying To Figure Out What Is Islam. Maybe If There Was A Department Of Peace, They Would Be Able To Say, ‘Uh-Oh, We’ve Got Some Problems With These People,’ … I Truly Believe That If We Had A Department Of Peace, We Would Have Seen [9/11] Coming.” (Ethan Wallison, “War A Challenge For Peace Caucus,” Roll Call, 10/1/01)

 

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA): “I Am Convinced That Military Action Will Not Prevent Further Acts Of International Terrorism Against The United States.” (Eddy Ramirez, “Calif. Congresswoman Alone In Vote Against War Powers Resolution,” [University Of California-Berkeley] Daily Californian, 9/17/01)

 

Al Sharpton (D-NY) Said That The Attacks On The World Trade Center Are Evidence That “America Is Beginning To Reap What It Has Sown.”  (Adam Nagourney, “Say It Loud,” The New York Times, 12/1/02)

 

Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) Claimed Osama Bin Laden Could Be Compared To “Revolutionaries That Helped To Cast Off The British Crown.” “‘One could say that Osama bin Laden and these non-nation-state fighters with religious purpose are very similar to those kind of atypical revolutionaries that helped to cast off the British crown,’ Kaptur told an Ohio newspaper, The (Toledo) Blade.” (Malie Rulon, “Lawmaker Compares Osama, U.S. Patriots,” The Associated Press, 3/6/03)

 

Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) Said The United States Would “Pay Every Single Hour, Ever Single Day” That Bombs Were Dropped In Afghanistan. “‘How much longer does the bombing campaign continue?’ Biden asked during an Oct. 22 speech at the Council on Foreign Relations. ‘We’re going to pay every single hour, every single day it continues.’” (Miles A. Pomper, "Building Anti-Terrorism Coalition Vaults Ahead Of Other Priorities," Congressional Quarterly Weekly, 10/26/01)

  • “The Bombing Campaign, [Biden] Said, Reinforced Existing Stereotypes Of The United States As A ‘High-Tech Bully …’” (Miles A. Pomper, "Building Anti-Terrorism Coalition Vaults Ahead Of Other Priorities," Congressional Quarterly Weekly, 10/26/01)

 

Gov. Howard Dean (D-VT) Said Osama Bin Laden Not Guilty.  Dean: “I Still Have This Old-Fashioned Notion That Even With People Like Osama, Who Is Very Likely To Be Found Guilty, We Should Do Our Best Not To, In Positions Of Executive Power, Not To Prejudge Jury Trials.” (“Dean Not Ready To Pronounce Osama Bin Laden Guilty,” The Associated Press, 12/26/03)

 

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) To High School Students: “How Would [Muslims] Look At Us Today If We Had Been There Helping Them With Some Of That Rather Than Just Being The People Who Are Going To Bomb In Iraq And Go To Afghanistan? … War Is Expensive Too … Your Generation Ought To Be Thinking About Whether We Should Be Better Neighbors Out In Other Countries So That They Have A Different Vision Of Us.” (Gregg Herrington, “Senator Asks Students To Ponder,” The [Vancouver, WA] Columbian, 12/19/02)

 

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA): “[W]ar On Terror Is Far Less Of A Military Operation And Far More Of An Intelligence-Gathering, Law-Enforcement Operation.”  (The Iowa Brown & Black Coalition Presidential Forum, Des Moines, IA, 1/11/04)

  • Kerry: “[W]hat We’ve Learned Is That The War On Terror Is Much More Of An Intelligence Operation And A Law Enforcement Operation.” (NPR’s “All Things Considered,” 3/19/03)

 

 

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[Fudd Fan]

Just goes to show ya, I'll believe anything bad about McPain!

[Southack]

"This was a trap play. Totally f'ing brilliant. They had the ammo ready when the moderates, I mean Liberal Democrats, walked into the fan."

Indeed. Liberals are so predictably "reactionary" that we've been able to figure out how to play them for suckers.

We put out the bait...they snap it up.

[Velveeta]

A you'll-want-to-bookmark-these-comments, ping.

[nikos1121]

This is good. Thanks. I don't see where he says "democrat" do you?

nick

[txrangerette]

See post # 95 (no, it's not true)

[listenhillary]

If they didn't already have this formatted and waiting.

[watchin]

I'll take that tagline!

[balch3]

Watch and see how the MSM spins it. This gives them an excuse to drop the Durbin story. Of course it'll still be talked about here, on talk radio, and on FOX. But most of the country will never hear of it again.

[G-Bob]

Why was there not more of an attempt made during the last election to tie some of these comments to Kerry and the Rats?

The Rats were getting millions from Soros and allowed Moore to sit with Jimmy Carter at their convention. They should have hung these statments around Kerry's neck.

[prognostigaator]

God Bless the USA bump

[sofaman]

Nope..he said Liberals...and the Senate Dems came unraveled.

This is hilarious...each Repub senator should as part of their comments simply read off the litany of statements by Democrats. They're telling and they buttress Rove's point.

BTW, the megalomaniac that is the Dem Party chair, has been throwing bombs for weeks now. They can dish it but they can't take it. What's sauce for the goose...

[USAfearsnobody]

Good work scouring Mr. seamus... I couldn't find this.

The important parts:

But perhaps the most important difference between conservatives and liberals can be found in the area of national security. Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers. In the wake of 9/11, conservatives believed it was time to unleash the might and power of the United States military against the Taliban; in the wake of 9/11, liberals believed it was time to… submit a petition. I am not joking. Submitting a petition is precisely what Moveon.org did. It was a petition imploring the powers that be” to “use moderation and restraint in responding to the… terrorist attacks against the United States.”

I don’t know about you, but moderation and restraint is not what I felt as I watched the Twin Towers crumble to the earth; a side of the Pentagon destroyed; and almost 3,000 of our fellow citizens perish in flames and rubble.  

Moderation and restraint is not what I felt – and moderation and restraint is not what was called for. It was a moment to summon our national will – and to brandish steel.  

MoveOn.Org, Michael Moore and Howard Dean may not have agreed with this, but the American people did.

----

Thanks to this transcript, and you locating it, we now know the MSM has SPINNED this 179 degrees out phase. The closest reference to the word, "Democrats" or the phrase, "Democratic Party" was this one TINY mention of "Howard Dean".

Now we know for sure that these comments were absolutely appropriate for the occasion.

 

[balch3]

That would be true if Rove controlled the spin cycle. But judging the transcript in the Scott Mclellan press conference, the MSM is working this in a way that;s not favorable. No surprise there. Other than Fox, it'll be a constant drumbeat about the "hateful" comments of Rove.

But I guess I'm in the minority on this. It just seems to me that Rove "out-clevered" himself this time.

[Laverne]

I don't think MSM carried the Durbin story in the first place. MSM are a wholy owned subsidiary of the DNC, and do not report negatively about democrats. They will however, jump all over the Rove statements. It will be funny to watch; we should all get a graet laugh out of the bias we will witness.

[engrpat]

Gotta bump for a read and save.

[lugsoul]

Ah, yes. Hyperbole. Exactly what it is. Not simply "setting forth different approaches to the war on terror."

I'm so much happier when I'm not disppointed by the inability of our leaders to avoid duplicity.

[Republican Red]

Doesn't say much for my opinion of McCain that I would fall so easily for that kind of reaction from him.

I figure if McCain has any intention of running for President, and I know he does, Rove could make or break him. My guess from the transcript of Rove's speech is that he won't lift a finger on his pudgy little hand to help McCain, a liberal in conservative clothing.

Rove 2008 - hear the liberal heads explode at the mere mention.

[Mister Baredog]

Absolutely brilliant.

It seems it's not so hard to trap desperate animals, LOL.

The Architect strikes again, hooray.

[TheGeezer]

Choice. Very choice.

[prairiebreeze]

:-D